The growing media furor occasioned by the dismissal of former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson finds a strange connection this week to a far larger media scandal in the UK. How much did former BBC Director-General Mark Thompson know about the activities of BBC star and serial paedophile Jimmy Savile – who may have abused up to 1,000 victims on BBC premises, apparently under the noses of BBC staff for more than 40 years?